tourist attractions in Bhopal

Nandan and I visited some places around Bhopal. Madhya Pradesh as a state seems more livable than Uttar Pradesh as the population seems lower, the roads are better, the cities and countryside are generally cleaner, and the government does more to make things easier for tourists.

We visited this zoo called Van Vihar near a beautiful lake in the city. The zoo rents bicycles and there is a flat 4km ride down a ride. There are large animal pens on one side and the lake is on the other. We were disappointed that we could not find the bear and that the two tigers were in a small cages rather than their full pens, but that night we watched the local news and saw a report that those animals had dental surgery that very day. We both felt that the animals were being properly cared for.

We visited a huge mosque, the Taj-ul-Masajid. It allowed non-Muslims to attend because it was historically significant. It was also a school and we met a student who was about 25 years old and he showed us around and invited us to watch evening prayers. I had never attended a Muslim religious service and was surprised that it lasted no more than five minutes. Ali, our guide, said that this was typical of all Muslim prayers and that huge groups of people arrive at the appointed time, do namaaz in a few minutes, then leave.

We visited the Bhimbedkar Caves, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site which has some ancient paintings dated to be around 10000 years old. The next day we visited another UNESCO World Heritage site, Sanchi, which has some Buddhist temples from 1000 years ago. Both of these sites were fun to visit but the information overload from all the traveling and exposure to the wonders of the world was starting to wear on my excitement. Sanchi was good for me because it was a quiet place on a plateau surrounded by farmland on rolling hills. It was nice to be somewhere peaceful and relax for a day.

We visited the world’s largest Shivling in some place called Bhojeshwar Temple. It was supposed to be 7 meters tall and it was huge but I was disappointed because most of the 7 meters was inside the yoni. Near this there was also a rock plain with some ancient carvings and a nature walk around a lake and then some old caves with temples to Parvati. Near the caves Nandan started taking some pictures of some construction rubble of ancient, intricately carved statues which had been replaced with the simple new ones which seem to me to be more popular as objects of worship. I asked Nandan if he found a priceless artifact and he said yes, it was in the garbage. What more can we do besides joke about this?